1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hot-air lid for containers used for cooking and frying.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known hot-air frying pan lids use filters for the absorption of smells for example (DE 44 12 843) and should ensure an especially efficient frying or cooking of the items to be fried or cooked (EP 0 712 596 A). It is further known (EP 0 788 754 A1, EP 0 780 078 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,235 A) to steam an item to be cooked in a cooking device which is charged with steam. Especially careful cooking of an item to be cooked is not possible with the aforementioned apparatuses because they do not produce any hot air stream that flows about the item to be cooked.
On the basis of this, it is the object of the present invention to avoid the aforementioned disadvantages and to provide a hot-air lid of the kind mentioned above in such a way that the same allows a particularly careful cooking of an item to be cooked in a hot-air stream.
The invention achieves this object in such a way that the hot-air lid consists of an upper part and a lower part which can be fixed in said upper part and which together with the upper part forms a cooking chamber, with the lower part having an upwardly oriented curved part with steam outlet openings and with a reflector being provided around said curved part in which further openings are located.
By heating a pan, the air enclosed in the pan is heated and enters the cooking chamber through the steam outlet openings in the curved part and then flows around the item to be cooked resting on the reflector during the return flow from the cooking chamber into the pan and cooks said item in a particularly careful fashion. The guidance and effect of the flow is supported in a particularly efficient manner by the subsequent chimney effect arising from the upwardly oriented curved part. In order to prevent that water condensing on the upper part of the lid reaches the lower region of the pan or in order to keep the condensation water from reaching the item to be cooked, the reflector is provided with a bead or groove enclosing the region of the through openings, which bead or groove prevents the return flow of formed condensation water into the pan. When the circumferential bead, which extends at a radial distance form the outer edge of the lower part, projects upwardly then this leads in a simple fashion to a sufficiently larger receiving area between the bead and edge of the lower part for the obtained condensation water and a higher stability and thus an increased torsional stability of the lower part. Instead of the upwardly projecting circumferential bead, it is also possible to provide a downwardly projecting circumferential groove or bead. In this case either the bead or the groove will receive the condensation water.
The flow effect of the hot air about the item to be cooked is improved to a substantial extent when the lower part comprises an upwardly bent edge with through openings, through which the hot air flow can reach the lower region of the pan again where the air or steam is heated again and is supplied to the cooking chamber.
Especially simple constructional conditions are obtained when the lower part comprises at least two downwardly projecting holding brackets which are swivelably held in the edge zone and engage in an undercut of the edge of the upper part. As a result, the lower part for cooking merely needs to be inserted into the upper part together with the item to be cooked for cooking purposes and then to be fixed in the same, whereupon the hot-air frying pan lid in accordance with the invention is placed on a pan for example and said pan is heated by means of a conventional stove. After the cooking process the holding brackets are released, whereupon the lower part plus the cooked item can be removed from the upper part. Moreover, the above measures ensure that the lower part sits close to the upper part in a sealed fashion.
If the upper part is provided with a through opening which can be released in an optional manner with the help of a handle element which is held in a rotationally adjustable fashion on the upper part, with the rotational adjustment being limited by a stop, the steam pressure in the cooking or frying container can be regulated in a particularly simple manner and a lift-off of the hot-air lid from the pan for example can be prevented securely. It is thus ensured that the hot-air lid will always rest securely on the cooking or frying container.
When the handle element holds a thermometer for displaying the temperature in the cooking chamber, the temperature in the cooking chamber can be checked in a particularly advantageous manner. The regulation of the cooking chamber temperature occurs by an adjustment of the energy supply, i.e. for example by adjusting the heating level of a heating plate.
Particularly simple conditions are obtained from a constructional viewpoint when the handle element comprises a through opening for a latching set-off of the thermometer which can be inserted in a receiving recess of the handle element, with said latching set-off latching into a latching receiver of the upper part in the manner of a snap. As a result of this measure the handle element is clamped in a simple manner between the upper part and the thermometer on the one hand and can be removed at any time from the upper part on the other hand because the thermometer is detachably connected with the upper part via the latching set-off. It has proved to be advantageous when the latching set-off is arranged as a temperature sensor for the thermometer because in this case it is no longer necessary to provide any further transmission members between the thermometer and the latching set-off or the upper part.